Today after conducting a really fun parkour session at the park I returned with a mindset to do some
training at home. I couldn't train at the park with others as I was busy instructing and helping them. I returned home, took a short break, had something to drink and started to warm up outside my house and I heard a voice from behind "Why do you do parkour?"
I quickly turned back to find out who it was. It was my mom standing a few feet behind me with a confused face. With the same confused face, she then threw a few more questions at me. "Why do you always do it? You train in the mornings, evenings and sometimes at night also. Whenever you get time, you do it, no matter where you are. What makes it so special and why are you so obsessed with it?"
I was surprised by those questions because I have been doing parkour for more than 7 years now and no one has ever asked me such questions. But I was in the middle of my training and I didn't want to answer her questions then because I knew it would definitely take a long time to make her understand, which I didn't want to do during my training. So, in a sarcastic way, I replied to her, “Since I have been doing it for more than 7 years, it's hard to remember why I started doing it”. She gave me a weird look and turned away and continued with her work.
After training for two hours, I went to her and said, “Now I remember. Sit, let me explain”. The following is how our conversation went after that.
Me: “What was your question again?”
Mom: “Why do you do parkour? What is so special about it?”
Me: “To me, parkour is just a natural thing to do. We're meant to be moving around and exploring the environment, exploring our bodies. So instead of going to a gym and lifting weights, I prefer moving around, climbing and jumping on things. It makes me feel free when compared to a regimented training. There's also a lot of mental challenges involved in Parkour. It's not just about whether my body is able to do it and whether I can focus and concentrate while trying to jump from one place to another but it's about a jump with something slightly different, like the landing area or landing a bit farther than my usual jumps or feeling tired while attempting that jump etc. All those things make it harder and there's always a mental battle going on during the training. I might just stand for 10 - 20 mins looking at the obstacle thinking about how to jump, what to do when I’m mid-air, when and how to land, what the possibilities of getting hurt are, how to make sure not to get hurt and how to land a jump safely. Something about having that mental battle feels really good, when I'm there fighting with my own mind where one part of me says, “I want to do this” and another says “I can't do it”, it helps me to get mentally strong and improves my confidence. I keep encouraging myself that I can do it and not to give up because of fear.
There is a whole range of benefits in parkour. Physically, it's good for me not just because I'm active and moving but it also does a lot of things that other sports or exercises don't. Parkour helps me use all my muscles and joints at the same time and helps keep my entire body strong, mobile and flexible.
It also makes me think about what I'm doing. There are always different movement patterns. Sometimes, I need to experiment and create a new movement for a particular wall that I need to climb over and that has me thinking ‘what if my right leg goes here first?’, ‘how do I jump?’, ‘how and where should I place my hand?’, ‘which leg do I place down?’, ‘how can I get my feet through so that I don't have to push only with my shoulders or lead with my hips?’ and all those sorts of little things. And then there is a mental side of Parkour where I get to be playful, explore and be creative since there are no set rules. I can do whatever I want, go where I want, find my own challenges and solve them by myself. I like to jump a lot whereas some people like to swing, some like to climb and it's all part of this exploration.
Parkour is so special because it's totally different to each individual and there's no competition. When I train alone, it's just the environment and me and I always find some way to win my mental battles and complete a jump properly. But I also like to train with my friends because it's fun. When I train in a group, we all share ideas, encourage each other, and it's really good to help others and make them do something they are afraid to do. When I train with kids, it's more like playing together. Training doesn't need to be structured and that's what makes it special.
The reason why I would be doing parkour for a long time is the variety within it. It's not a strictly set discipline. I can do all sorts of things and always find new and different challenges. Sometimes it's strength, sometimes its speed and there's always the creativity aspect, which means that I can always come up with new and different movements"
After explaining to my mom for more than 10 mins, she said "Okay" and left the place. I'm not sure whether she understood what I said but she was showing interest, listening to everything and I'm happy that she asked me those questions and gave me an opportunity to analyse and explain why it is so special to me.
So now it's your turn to tell me why you do parkour! Go on :)
Parkourpaiyan
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